The new wartime romantic movie Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society opens this weekend. Filmed largely in North Devon, where the county doubled as the island, there are also London-based scenes, easily glimpsed in the trailer.
In April last year, 60 cast and crew filmed on Sicilian Avenue in Bloomsbury, Camden, with a greenscreen at the end helping to convert the pedestrianised street into the appropriate period look. The avenue works beautifully as a period shopping street.
The House of Detention in Sans Walk, Islington, was used as the location for a lively 1940s jazz party with 60 cast and crew.
The action also takes place in front of the Malmaison Hotel and within the Charterhouse compound in Islington.
FilmFixer manages the film office service for Islington and Camden. FilmFixer director Karen Everett says, “We understand that parts of Devon including Bideford, Clovelly, and Hartland served as Guernsey locations, with a second world war fighter plane even landing on Saunton Sands.
“But we’re also always pleased when London’s own period locations are able to play themselves, through sensitive and well managed film permitting.
“Sicilian Avenue in particular works very well – and was put to good use in a wartime period setting for the blockbuster Woman Woman.”
The film is about a writer who forms an unexpected bond with the residents of Guernsey in the aftermath of World War II, learning about about their experiences of life under Nazi occupation.